Nov
13
2021
R&B Artist Mi-kaisha joins Bounce
R&B artist and 2019 NAIDOC Youth of the Year, Mi-kaisha joins Bounce as a Youth Ambassador.
We are excited to announce R&B artist Mi-kaisha as our new Youth Ambassador. Mi-kaisha is an R&B Soul artist and songwriter who was born and raised in Sydney’s south. Her lyrics represent hard-hitting, often political messages about being a young Blak and Pacific Islander woman in Australia. She draws inspiration from the strong, resilient women in her community. Mi-kaisha was named National NAIDOC Week Youth of the Year in 2019 and was recently admitted to the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University.
As our new youth ambassador Mi-kaisha will be using music and creativity combined with sports based projects to inspire the next generation of young leaders, sharing her creativity and perspectives on culture and resiliency. With plans to launch new initiatives in the US in coming months, Mi-kaisha will have opportunities to work with young people in Bounce programs in New York as well as engaging in projects when she is back in Australia.
“I love that Bounce is working to build it’s program across international borders and as someone currently based out of New York, I feel that I have a responsibility to get connected with the local community here and learn about the experiences of the peoples whose communities and spaces I have entered. I love that there’s a connection with both my community back home in Sydney and also the community in which I now live in NYC, those ties are special and highly valuable to me.”
The Youth Ambassador program is a new initiative in 2021 to identify passionate young people who are up and coming athletes, artists, and all round achievers committed to making an impact for the young people we work with. The Youth Ambassador program will connect young people in our programs to a range of Youth Ambassadors to inspire positive change and support our social impact programs.
Mi-kaisha joins our first Youth Ambassador, Alicia Bilyara Finlay Bennett, a young Sydney based Indigenous artist in the Bounce Youth Ambassador program. Bilyara will be engaging with young people through our arts and infrastructure programs, using art and creativity combined with sports based projects to create a range of unique cultural artworks. These projects will include a backboard art project in urban and remote communities, designs for use across our tournament and program gear, and more… Bilyara will work across Indigenous and culturally diverse groups and we can’t wait to show you some of these exciting projects as they come to life!
Ian Heininger, CEO Charity Bounce, said “Mi-kaisha has amazing talent and gifts in music and shares our passion to impact and inspire young people across the globe. She is a great example of strength, resiliency, and dreaming big so we cant wait to get her involved as we start our work with the incredible young people we will meet in New York. ”
R& B artist and 2019 NAIDOC Youth of the Year, Mi-kaisha is our new Bounce Youth Ambassador and is currently based in NYC.
About Charity Bounce
Charity Bounce is a not for profit organisation that exists to build resiliency and positive job futures for young people at -risk (12-24), using innovation through basketball to create ‘out of reach’ opportunities that inspire and motivate change. With a focus on Indigenous and culturally diverse communities, including newly arrived refugees, we aim to move young people toward a more positive future through the development of sports, education and employment focused social programs. The programs are delivered in partnership with sporting organisations, engaging professional athletes alongside our youth workers to motivate and inspire participants.
